St. Vic's Home for Unclean Ramblings

i never cease to be amazed at how large organizations can be fundamentally inefficient and misdirected, yet still find success through their gargantuan momentum and mere presence in the market.

i left my last job because of how the ineptitude of my boss affected my job and my ability to grow and advance in my career with the company and in my field. i found him to be neither creative nor a director, both essential parts to his two-word title. being critiqued in my job performance by him was like having a customer who's only seen a wrench tell a trained head mechanic how to overhaul a modern engine. when i was knocked for being a poor manager and promised professional development and external coaching, he didn't follow through with it and let the offer die (essentially invalidating the issue, in my opinion). his knack for being short-sighted and more a glad-hand friend of consumer sales rather than a leader of our creative team and its responsibilities meant that i and the other senior managers on the team often had to manage and direct our boss like he was a junior member of staff. it finally came down to him beginning to remove me from my management and leadership roles when i decided to leave what should have been a great career opportunity.

when i left i thought the writing would be on the wall for him. it seemed that his boss and others in our ecommerce department were aware of his shortcomings and his deflection of responsibility for failures to his own reportees. i dreamt of hearing the pending word that he was canned or that he left for greener pastures elsewhere in companies that didn't know how professionally immature and devoid of web and business experience he was. chats with friends and colleagues still at my old company gave me hope that things were in the works for my old bosses departure. nobody respected him, everyone thought he was a liability to the department's success, so why would he continue to be on staff?

but that never happened. instead, it seems like he's escalated in ranks somehow, and others whom i thought would lead the charge to better business models in the company left or were forced out. i don't know how he does it, but apparently he exudes an air of success to those above him, most likely based on the strength and success of those who report to him. their ideas and talents i'm sure are absorbed into him and belched forth unacknowledged, names only mentioned when he needs a shield for fucking up what usually is a solid plan that he himself has probably tripped over instead of understanding and supporting it fully.

how do large companies get away with this? how do they find ways to keep the bad seeds around, poisoning the crop? how do these inefficient, politically astute but talentless distractions find ways to rise in the ranks and continue to affect team and company performance and morale negatively? i'd say it was shakespearean but it's nowhere near as elegant or eloquent as his work... it's mere reduction of his tragedies, but a tragedy none the less. is this one of those situations where the grand conservatism of a large company clashes with my sense of progressivism? i've never thought a job with execs in suits symbolized so much.